Southern California Gas wants its customers to pay extra for insurance on gas lines in their homes and it wants them to buy coverage from a Connecticut company called Home Emergency Insurance Solutions.

John Standley, chief executive of the Rite Aid pharmacy chain, was effusive this week in describing how consumers will benefit from his company spending $2 billion to buy EnvisionRx, a firm most people likely never heard of.

The parent of Anthem Blue Cross disclosed late Wednesday that hackers stole the personal information of as many as 80 million customers and employees in the worst security breach of a U.S. healthcare company.

Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, speaking this week at a conservative policy summit, presented what he called the "single most important tax reform" America could make: abolishing the Internal Revenue Service.

Time Warner Cable customers may have been wondering whether there was a hidden catch when the company recently upgraded people's Internet modems for free. Time Warner said there was nothing sneaky going on.

Laurie Chisum works as a manager for a small office-equipment company in Orange County. She puts in about 30 hours a week on the job and spends much of her time at home caring for her mother, who is afflicted with Alzheimer's disease.

Express Scripts, which handles prescription-drug benefits for millions or people nationwide, is dropping coverage for 66 brand-name drugs next month in an effort to keep costs down. Rival CVS Health is dropping 95 drugs from its own list of covered drugs.

Be honest now: Do you trust big businesses to play fair when they issue credit cards or loans? Do you trust them to release only safe products, to protect the environment, to follow all financial rules and to act in the best interest of society?

As more people abandon pricey cable and satellite services, the pay-TV industry may be finally waking up to the reality that if it wants to survive, it's going to have to give consumers what they desire.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti stepped up to the plate in the Great Dodgers Blackout this week, calling on federal regulators to look into why most people in the area can't watch their favorite team on TV.

Ask David Engel how many customers he has for Review Concierge, his service to protect and repair the online reputations of healthcare professionals, and he'll proudly say the number is around 300,000.

Time Warner Cable was patting itself on the back this week after saying it was willing to have a federal arbitrator step in to resolve its long-running dispute with other pay-TV companies over the cost of the new Dodgers channel.

No one expects the federal government to be a model of efficiency. But with a projected deficit of nearly $600 billion this year, you'd think officials would do everything possible to help people pay their taxes.

A letter received by Judy Damico from something called the U.S. Claims Services said that "private investigators" had located $398 that the insurance giant WellPoint had unsuccessfully tried to refund to her.

A pharmacist with drugstores in Glendale and West Hills is "a danger to the public health and safety" for allegedly possessing counterfeit and expired prescription medications, state regulators contend.

Nobody should be surprised anymore by news of big, fat telecom mergers. AT&T's acquiring DirecTV for nearly $49 billion is just the latest in a long line of tie-ups among phone, cable and satellite companies.

Consumers have a responsibility to watch out for funky charges on their credit card statements. So Carol Kearns has no one to blame but herself for allowing an unwanted roadside-assistance service to keep billing her for nine years.

Only five years ago, California enacted a pioneering law that required restaurants to put nutritional information on menus. For the first time, consumers were empowered to make informed decisions about what they ate.

In his 30 years as a pharmacist, including three at a CVS Caremark store in Northern California, Wayne Wilson said it was all too common for drugstore employees to steal prescription drugs, which would often make their way to the black market.

CVS Caremark Corp. could face as much as $29 million in fines for allegedly losing track of prescription painkillers at four of its California stores, from which authorities said thousands of pills may have been sold on the black market.

The Generic Pharmaceutical Assn. says a proposed federal regulation that would allow makers of generic drugs to inform people about all known health risks would create "dangerous confusion" and have "harmful consequences for patients."

Federal regulators are taking a closer look at those restrictive contract provisions that force consumers to arbitrate disputes — barring them from suing a company individually or joining a class-action lawsuit.

The Rubik's Cube that is healthcare reform might have become even more puzzling for some people Thursday after the operator of California's online insurance exchange rejected President Obama's call for extending the life of canceled policies.

There is perhaps no better metaphor for the painful relationship between patients and our for-profit healthcare system than the fact that Anthem Blue Cross thinks you don't need anesthesia for a colonoscopy.

Michael Barr served as the U.S. Treasury Department's assistant secretary for financial institutions in 2009 and 2010. He oversaw the Obama administration's dealings with Congress in creating the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

CVS Caremark insists that it's just complying with federal law by informing customers that their medical information could be "redisclosed" if they sign up for the company's prescription-drug reward program.

A lot of people are sick of the money-grubbing spat between Time Warner Cable and CBS, which has resulted in CBS, Showtime and other channels being unavailable to the cable company's subscribers since Aug. 2.

You'll be safer in 2009. At least that's the expectation of consumer watchdogs who believe the changing of the guard at the White House in a few weeks will mark the beginning of a new era in protecting people from stuff that can hurt you.

It seems clear that change is coming to the U.S. healthcare system. President-elect Barack Obama wants it. Congress wants it. Even the insurance industry says the time is ripe to do things differently.

It began with a dizzy spell. Before long, though, what really had my head spinning was the inscrutable way that healthcare providers and insurers put a dollar value on medical services -- and how that leaves patients unable to determine a fair price for any treatment.

It began with a dizzy spell. Before long, though, what really had my head spinning was the inscrutable way that healthcare providers and insurers put a dollar value on medical services -- and how that leaves patients unable to determine a fair price for any treatment.

He refers to himself as Dr. House Call. In glossy brochures mailed recently to thousands of well-to-do households from Malibu to Brentwood, he said he was seeking to be a "caring, old-fashioned Marcus Welby kind of good doctor without the office hassles."

The next time you make some microwave popcorn or cook a frozen pizza, consider this: The packaging of many of these products contains a chemical that the Environmental Protection Agency considers potentially carcinogenic and wants businesses to voluntarily stop using by 2015.

California's three biggest utilities are charging customers nearly $4.6 billion to install millions of "smart meters" at homes and businesses. These newfangled meters, the utilities promise, will revolutionize energy usage by giving consumers far greater control over how much they pay for power.

The name of the game for social-networking websites such as MySpace and Facebook is to draw as many users as possible into the fold. Typically that's done by creating a community and features so irresistible that people feel they just have to join.

A lot of drivers probably thought they were finally getting a break when then-California Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi announced in 2005 that he was requiring insurers to stop using ZIP Codes as a main factor in determining car-insurance rates.

The Cuban government made headlines worldwide when it announced the other day that its citizens would finally have unrestricted access to cellphones, ushering in a new era in telecommunications for the economically challenged island.

With oil prices at record highs and gas heading to the $4-a-gallon level, I was set to come roaring out of the gate today with a proposal that all vehicles be slapped with a conservation-promoting surcharge based on mileage, with proceeds going to public-transit projects.

Keith Fitzgerald, a concessions manager for Los Angeles International Airport, was in the middle of a meeting last month when his cellphone suddenly emitted an unfamiliar ring. He'd received his first-ever text message.

I don't pretend to understand all the minutiae of the writers strike, but I do know this much: Hollywood scribes want to be compensated fairly when their work is accessed on the Internet, which is increasingly becoming a venue to watch movies and TV shows.

The Connecticut attorney general's office sued Best Buy in May, charging the electronics heavyweight with using deceptive in-store websites to trick customers into paying higher prices than available on the company's actual site.

First people were allowed to take their phone numbers with them whenever they switched wireless providers. Now, Verizon Wireless is handing consumers greater clout by allowing them to use their own handsets, not just Verizon's, on the carrier's network.

The United States Mint -- you know, the guys who make your money -- issued a news release this week declaring that $130 refunds were being offered to anyone who bought a 2004 Lewis and Clark commemorative coin that was accompanied by a handcrafted pouch produced by Ohio's Shawnee Nation United Remnant Band.

You buy a Band-Aid. You get a scrape. You use your Band-Aid. And the next time you go to the drugstore, you're told that you have to pay more for Band-Aids. Or maybe they won't sell you another Band-Aid at all.

If past history is any measure, many homeowners affected by the wildfires burning throughout Southern California will find that claims they submit to insurers will result in higher rates or even dropped policies.

Let's say you're shopping for a new cellphone. Let's say that, like me, you thought it'd be kind of cool to own one of those sleek Razr handsets. So let's say you go to T-Mobile's website and there it is, for the nifty price of $49.99.